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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

"PUIAS Linux 6.2 released. We are publishing the final PUIAS 6.2 today and we made it the default for PUIAS 6. Machines on automatic setup can expect to receive the update tonight - if you would like to keep your machines at 6.1 for now consider either stopping your rsync of the main mirror or creating /etc/yum/vars/releasever file with content 6.1 on such machines."

PUIAS Linux is a free version of Red Hat issued by the Princeton University Institute of Advanced Studies. It is actually older than CentOS and Scientific Linux, but this is its first DVD set; previously it was only available by net install.

Installation uses the well-known Anaconda. As with all Red Hat style systems, you get a wide variety of installation types offered, from Basic server to Computational node. I chose the standard Desktop. The selection of software installed was quite small: OpenOffice, Evolution, Firefox, Ekiga, Pidgin, Cheese, Totem, and Rhythmbox. Needless to say, all worked perfectly.

As well as the base repository, there are two others. Addons contains a few packages not included in Red Hat, such as Broadcom wireless drivers and Gnumeric. Computational includes packages for scientific computing. Unlike Scientific Linux, you need to add the repositories by creating your own configuration files.

You can also use EPEL, RPMfusion (media codecs), atrpms, and elrepo. If you do this, you must use the yum-priorities plugin, as explained in the CentOS wiki. The Adobe repository is needed for the browser plugin; you cannot install it from the website using Firefox.

There is little documentation, but the sites of Red Hat, CentOS, and Scientific Linux will serve.

Like Scientific Linux, but unlike CentOS, this is a distribution prepared for a specific community, and so it will only add items to Red Hat that are needed by that community. This applies to hardware support. For example, my computer has no sound in PUIAS or Scientific Linux, although it does in CentOS. For home and office use, CentOS would be a better bet. For a scientist, however, the extra software would be an obvious advantage.